AVIXA Invites Members to Join Forces in an Effort to Find Health Insurance Discounts

Proposed AVIXA health plan could help some members realize 10 to 30 percent savings on health care benefits for their employees.

Leave a Comment
AVIXA Invites Members to Join Forces in an Effort to Find Health Insurance Discounts

AVIXA members have regularly groused about the ever-increasing cost of health care for their employees and association leadership is trying to help them cut some of those costs through a proposed association health plan.

But, so far, interest among members in pooling their resources and being part of the joint effort “hasn’t been at the level I had anticipated,” says AVIXA CEO David Labuskes.

AVIXA is hoping to have companies representing at least 500 employees express interest by Nov. 30. The 500-person threshold is likely a minimum to attract interest of large insurance companies, although more would be welcomed.

“The whole AVIXA health insurance program is based on scale,” says Labuskes, who introduced the proposal during the 2018 AV Executive Conference in Tampa, Fla., earlier this month.

“The more people involved, the better the savings.”

How much participants could save

There are no guarantees of what savings AVIXA members could achieve until Mercer begins shopping the group to various nationwide health plans, says Labuskes, but Mercer officials have told him it could range from 10 to 30 percent from what they’re paying today.

Labuskes made it clear AVIXA is not entering the healthcare space and the association will not be the administrator of the plan if it goes forward. But, because health care costs are “one of the most consistent things I hear about,” they decided to pursue alternatives.

“We’ve put in a lot of work on this over many months before we could get to this stage,” says Labuskes. “We wanted it to be a policy menu we could be proud of. We didn’t want to do this wrong.”

How it will work

Steve Graybill, principal of Mercer Health & Benefits, told attendees of a recent AVIXA webinar the company will help members select the appropriate plan for them, help to enroll employees and their family members and provide them the necessary support.

Mercer will help to design the plan, solicit rates and services from carriers and make recommendations about the next steps. He expects the plan to launch in the middle of 2019 if enough AVIXA members show interest in the initiative.

The proposal will include multiple health plans, life insurance, dental insurance, disability insurance and protection for hospital indemnity and critical illness, among other benefits, says Graybill.

Submitting interest in an AVIXA Health Insurance Program

For now, AVIXA is not looking for specific names of member companies’ employees, says Labuskes. They need genders and ages but no other identifying information, he says.

“This is not a commitment,” says Labuskes.

Click here for more information and to register for the proposed AVIXA association health plan.

If you enjoyed this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our digital newsletters!